RACE SECREATRY..WILL DETERMINE WHAT KIND OF CLASS DA HORSE FALLS IN TO

Yes the race Secretary rules all. IMHO, That will again be the problem not the solution.We will return to the thrilling days of yesteryear when he who had the most (paid for) friends in the office won the most races.

While we are at it lets bring back high wheeled wooden sulkies and pool ques for head poles.IMHO, Age, gait, sex, and money are the only fair ways to classify horses, not friends in high places.

Much of this comes down to accurately classifying horses. The thoroughbreds moved comfortably into conditioned racing ages ago and stayed there; harness racing, on the other hand, spent more than twenty years dealing with internecine warfare between the establishment—HTA—which favored conditioned racing and the Metropolitan New York tracks and numerous others that preferred alphabet classifications.

In 1963 HTA declared that all tracks should switch to conditioned racing, but Freehold and Brandywine went back to ABC racing in short order and Yonkers, Roosevelt and Monticello eventually joined them. With ABC racing, the racing secretary holds all the power; if he says your pacer is a B1 horse, that’s where he will race. Some horsemen liked this, while others preferred the personal control conditioned racing gave them over their stock. After the switch was made it became apparent that some horsemen weren’t so adept at reading conditions and placing their horses accordingly. The judgment calls that had resided in the racing secretaries office now belonged to them, and some didn’t prosper under that system.

Fans who had become accustomed to ABC racing found it easy to read a program and figure out which horses were moving up or down, or staying on the same level. Suddenly, under conditioned racing, they were required to size up horses from different tracks with different purse and competition levels, and figure out how they fit into races drawn up according to wins and money. Some vowed to never set foot inside a harness track again. What many failed to realize was that horsemen had become adept at maneuvering their horses through this system so as to hit a periodic sweet spot. Between errors in judgment and personal bias on the part of the racing secretary, and duplicity on the part of horsemen, the bettors weren’t being as well-served as they thought by this seemingly simple system. On the other hand, a skilled racing secretary could take a wide angle view of an aged horse and place him according to what he proved he was over an extended period of time, so each system had an upside.

The main problem for racing secretaries and bettors in analyzing conditioned racing being placing a relative value on horses from different tracks, Ed Parker, racing secretary at Monticello, drew up a chart of purse values from all tracks and correlated them with a class value. This chart appeared in the program every night. Some found it helpful, but it was still kind of messy.

Finally Roosevelt went back to conditioned racing around 1984/85 and that turned the tide. Having ABC racing at Yonkers and conditioned racing at Roosevelt, concurrently, was a nightmare.

Some think the distance handicap system employed Down Under is the fairest way to go, while others prefer the post position handicap system used at the New York tracks from time to time over the years. It’s a most inexact science, and until someone comes up with a much better system for grouping horses the sorts of issues raised in this thread will continue to arise.

its a system which, however, can be abused. when in place at yonkers and roosevelt it became apparent there was a noticeable class system in the ranks of trainers relative to favoritism by the race office.

the classes were c3,2,1 b3,2,1 a3,2,1 then preferred, invite, open. a winning horse would go up in class after the win (off tracks not included). the problem was a "peter principle" thing. once a horse stopped being competitive (1,2,3) how long before he starts getting class relief ?

steve star and larry mallar had no set criteria as to when a horse would drop down. it was totally up to them.

Since judgment calls rule the day under ABC racing there can be some nasty confrontations between the racing secretary and the horsemen.

Around 1970 Ed Parker classified little Robin Dundee (dam of Genghis Khan) as a AA pacer. She had gone off at 30/1 in her previous start and finished out. Cobb asked him to drop the mare and Parker told Cobb, “You know you didn’t try with her the last time.”

Cobb was very upset about his integrity being questioned and lodged a complaint with the Racing Commission, but nothing came of it. He boycotted Yonkers after that. He’d race at Roosevelt then move on to Chicago, Massachusetts, Delaware….

Hey, I hope it works, but I dont see how it can any better than the race secretary doing his job in the first place. There are too many NW conditions for racehorses as it is. Make people put a price on their horses and emphasize the NW(2,3,4) young horses again, which are THE most important group for owners and breeders. The NW3/100K life was a STAPLE of the Big M....raced for a giant purse and people made money. That was a serious class for really good solid horses and that class almost by itself separated 3 & 4 yr olds for where they belonged. Too many series and not enough "open" NW's are hurting the big M not helping....we will see. Just my 2 cents.

If it makes the program easier to read...go for it.... The program might as well be chinese for new fans..... make it easy as A, B , C ..... Jeff G will not put up with fights anf the items mentioned.... Jason knows racing and will be a asset....hope it works..... I like it.....

Only as good as the Race Secretary wants it to be. He has to watch every race. If a horse is parked or locked in he stays put, If the horse goes a big trip, wins by a hose he does not have to go up... Problems arise when a stable of top horses enters.. They have 2 very legitimate open horses.. One goes in open, the other gets the softer spot in the next class down. If they happen to have a open ll horse he will be down in the next class as the open l from that stable/owner is already backed in there.. VD switched back to this classification. Rick Plano win 6 one night as most were racing a class lower than where they should be..(shuffled down) No knocks about trainer/owner doing that id the RS goes along.. One trainer enters 2 very nice horses at Saratoga every Sat. One gets in soft.. On the 1/2 it does leave the option of handicapping the race for PP`s that helps a little.. Again, only as good as the RS is...or wants to be....

The Meadowlands will introduce ABC Racing when the track re-opens on Dec. 28. ABC Racing categorizes horses into A, B and C rankings, replacing conditions determined by money earnings. This permits the racing secretary to create races in which the entrants are most competitive and equal in ability.

After a meeting of Meadowlands chairman Jeff Gural, Standardbred Breeders & Owners Association of New Jersey president Tom Luchento and Hall of Fame driver John Campbell, it was agreed to move forward with the new format.

"We think the best racing can be accomplished by classifying horses by their ability and not their money earnings,” Luchento said. "The goal is to have full fields and competitive fields. We think ABC Racing will facilitate both objectives.”

"We are going to experiment with classified racing (ABC) versus conditioned racing as a way to classify horses,” said Meadowlands director of racing and racing secretary Peter Koch. "We are hopeful this method will yield even more competitive racing for our fans. We will still have non-winners of two races lifetime as well as non-winners of three races lifetime for the younger horses and claiming races at every level.

"Classified racing has horses evaluated by the racing secretary and moved up and down in class based upon performance,” Koch noted. "We look forward to bringing the public the great racing product the Meadowlands has always had.”

The Meadowlands resumes live racing on Dec. 28 and 29 and, subject to the approval of the New Jersey Racing Commission, will have a 2013 schedule from Jan. 3 to Aug. 3 plus Nov. 23 to Dec. 28 for a total of 82 dates. (SBOANJ/Meadowlands)